


Challenge Prompt Accepted!

by Ricecake93



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Challenge Response, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Gen, M/M, Magic and Science, Modern Boy in Thedas, Modern Character in Thedas, Multi, OP Character, Overpowered Character, Sign Language, mute character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 06:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19458358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ricecake93/pseuds/Ricecake93
Summary: Nathan was challenged by AO3 user, SupremeMaker, to write and finish a mute, op-mage modern character in Thedas prompt by one year from now. The author accepted the challenge only to be sucked into the Dragon Age Universe, playing in the shoes of the prompt's Herald of Andraste.With his extensive knowledge from Earth's education and varied hands-on hobbies from all his free time, Nathan slowly starts to change Thedas with brilliant inventions and magical theory concepts. But first, he'll need to learn this world's language and find a way to communicate to others without his voice.Also, potential love interests, other than those of the Inner Circle, are pinning after him. The Challenge prompt demanded a harem after all.





	Challenge Prompt Accepted!

THE WRATH OF HEAVEN

*****

This is not happening.

_“Damm sa fro fa cruimth'd gemm oui nekrd huf.”_

This _cannot_ be happening!

_“Dra Luhlmyja ec tacdnuoat. Ajanouha fru ryc yddahtat ec tayt... aqlabd vun oui.”_

The Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast had just walked in the cellar room that I woke up in, sauntered a circle around me, and grabbed my left wrist, showing the fated mark upon my hand. She was probably speaking the words that belonged to her scripted dialogue from the game. She looked pissed off too, and—Jesus! Holy shit, I didn’t even notice Leliana on the side until now. When did she appear?

Shit, shit, shit, this can’t be happening. I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming!

Cassandra then barked a few more incoherent words, probably demanding why I wasn’t answering.

I should answer her.

“…!”

What? Where did my voice--?

Ah… that’s right. The character of this story is MUTE.

To make this dream even worse, I couldn’t even understand a single word they were saying. She spoke again harshly and reached down, grasping my throat. Yup, she was livid, and she was choking the living hell out of me.

Still, the problem remained. I couldn’t answer.

God damn that challenge prompt, why the hell did I even accept it?

Thankfully, Leliana pulled her away and she began talking, and I’m sure she was asking me questions about what happened, but how the heck should I response?

I think something about my puzzled expression made her pause as a red brow raised curiously toward me. Then she started pointing at her own ear, gesturing.

Was she trying to ask me if I was _deaf?_

That would be accurate. With them speaking a different language, I would be considered death, but I remember reading a fanfic where a modern girl also went through a language barrier and the people thought she was deaf; it backfired on her. I don’t want that happening, especially when I’m not a very good liar.

And so, I shook my head no. Gonna avoid that flag.

I started to gesture with my right hand: _writing_. The nightingale understood that and was probably about to order a guard to fetch a paper and quill, but then Cassandra let out a heavy, exasperated sigh.

Well, excuse me, I didn’t really ask to be here: accepting a challenge prompt and being transported to Thedas aren’t the same thing.

Leliana suggested something, but the Seeker shook her head. She walked over to me, unlocking the shackles, but tying the rope around my wrists. Okay, I suppose I’m not allowed to write at all; we were probably running out of time.

She led me up above the chantry’s cellar and outside the huge wooden doors.

My god…

They say the breach is a huge hole in the sky. I think that’s an understatement. It was a tear in the fabric of reality that was spewing out chaos and comets, spreading devastation everywhere if it were allowed to grow bigger. This was literally the end of the world for Thedas.

Honestly, I half-expected Loki and his Chitauri fleet to enter, just to make things even worse.

Oh, Cassandra’s talking.

I picked up words, and possibly just the names like _Justinia_. I can only guess she was speaking from the dialogue, because really, what else would she be saying.

I merely shrugged my shoulders at her, making her more frustrated.

She walked over to me, pointed at my glowing hand and then pointed back at the Breach.

“ _Syng. Pnaylr._ ”

Mark = syng

Breach = pnaylr

I nodded my head to her and my response placated her.

She walked me through the town of Haven, and it looked a lot bigger than what they showed in the game. It was more like a cluster of wooden cabins bunched up together. In some areas, they were neatly panned out, but in other areas, they were just placed there in disarray. Still, more cabins meant more people. At the moment, I was facing off angry people.

They were shouting, probably throwing insults at me and wishing for my death. Honestly, this was a lot harsher than I thought, and I can only empathize for the Herald of Andraste.

Oh wait… that would be me, wouldn’t it?

Shit.

This was all SupremeMaker’s fault.

*****

Let’s start with the fact that I am nothing more but a factory worker, paying rent to a room. Most of the time, I just stayed locked in my room away from the outside world, doing my hobbies. Other times, I write fan fiction. I’ve written plenty of stories, but I’ve never finished any of them. Either I had writer’s block, I’ve lost interest, or no one liked it.

One day, SupremeMaker left a comment on one of my new stories, saying, ‘Oh no. Another one? Are you even going to finish this?’

Rude, but… he was sort of right. Was I really going to finish it?

I continued reading his comment, and instead of a review, he was inciting me to accept and write his challenge prompt. His words had provoked me, and so I decided to accept his proposal.

Right after I posted that comment, a bright white light flooded my computer’s screen, blinding me, and I felt something grab me and pulled me in.

And here I was, taking up the trail with Cassandra, unable to speak or even understand what she was saying. Every time she would say something, I would shrug because I have no clue what she was complaining about. Then, she would give me a frustrated look mixed with disappointment.

Suddenly, the breach made an explosion. The pain shot through my arm, but it wasn’t enough to take me down on my knees like a little while ago.

However, that was when I realized that we were now crossing the bridge.

_Shit!_

Looking up, I already spotted the falling comet heading straight for us.

My heart started racing fast.

There were at least seven people on this bridge, including me and the Seeker. Damn it! Why didn’t I remember this part? How could I forget? I would have had time to warn the Seeker—though I wouldn’t know how to communicate it, it would have saved them.

I closed my eyes tightly, preparing myself…

But the comet never came.

Opening my eyes, I saw the comet just hovering up above, still covered in green flames, but it looked as if it was frozen in time. In fact, everyone around me had stopped moving, and even I had stopped moving. What was going on? My eyes glanced around from what I could see vision alone, and the rest of them were really not seeing the danger, except for two soldiers, whom were about to point and yell at the falling flaming object, though they would have been too late.

How am I doing this?

Then I recalled part of the prompt that SupremeMaker had set for me. Although I had many disadvantages (with being mute and struggling with language barrier are only the first of many cons), he listed two badass skills for me: ultimate magic and pause.

_Pause_ was every protagonist’s unique skill in Dragon Age, and it was essential for every strategist.

Now, I have all the time to think of what to do.

_Ultimate magic_ was another unique skill that solely belonged to me only. Apparently, SupremeMaker had said that it is a given that any character that came from another world must have super awesome skills: a commandment rule of every ‘isekai’ world. A modern character in Thedas would be considered an isekai genre, even if it isn’t anime.

So, what do I do? How do I use magic? Should I just imagine a barrier?

Thinking about it, the barriers of Thedas are not actually bulletproof, let alone stop a comet. What can stop a comet?

It would be nice to have Captain America’s shield; large size.

Wait… here, magic can ultimately bend the laws of physics. If I could make a barrier that would mimic vibranium, then it should work out. Hmm, maybe I should also have it release all the kinetic energy, rebounding it back to the crashing comet so it would collapse.

Alright. Let’s try it out. I only get one shot of this.

I’m not sure how I’m doing it, but time started to speed up again, slowly at first before returning to normal.

I wasted no time to wave my hand and summoned everything I have to make this barrier.

Also, I have to be very honest. I don’t know what I’m doing. I was really worried, considering that this would be my first-time using magic, and I didn’t have any knowledge on how to actually weave mana into doing my bidding. However, I had felt it. There was this strange static in the air that grated against an invisible satin fabric. Through will alone, a translucent prismatic round barrier that resembled Cap’s shield appeared before us in a massive size that protected most of the bridge.

The falling comet crashed right on the shield, and just as how I set it up, the force of impact rebounded back and the comet bounced off, shattering into pieces. The effect was like throwing a ceramic mug into a cemented wall. The pieces spread out on the icy lake, and black gooey spots started to form.

Then Cap’s shield disappeared and I heaved out a sigh. Holy shit… I was exhausted.

“Ruf tet oui-? Oui yna y syka???”

Cassandra demanded, probably asking how I did that and inquiring whether or not I was mage. The other soldiers on the bridge were gaping and looking at me with fear. Yikes.

Glancing back at the lake, I saw shades coming out from the black goo spots. To my horror, there were at least nine _shades_ of varied appearances coming out from abyssal pools. That’s _so_ not like in the game! They introduced at least two or three demons, and _not_ nine!

How are we going to fight against nine demons?!

“…!!”

Not being able to make noise, I kept pointing several times down below. Cassandra glanced down and her face cringed in chagrin. She then started barking orders at the soldiers, and they soon regained their composures, taking arms and heading down to the lake.

The seeker than tugged my arm, gesturing me to follow, and I did. I mean what choice did I have? I was sure if I started running now, she would catch up to me, even when she’s all clad in armor. The seeker was in a much better shape than I was.

When we got down there, a shade from far away then dove right down, disappearing into the ground, only to reappear a meter away in front of us to attack. It was as if the Easter eggs from the settings were turned on. The seeker was one step ahead from the demon as she bashed it with her shield, knocking it down.

I am reminded once more of how badass Cassandra is.

“Argghh!”

“NGH-!”

Soldiers were dropping faster than demons were being killed. There were now only two soldiers left, and still five shades remaining. Fighting demons that had versatile abilities like these ones was extremely difficult.

Moreover, I was still figuring out how to work my magic. So far, I can only make Cap’s shield, but a smaller version, attaching it to my arm. I also made sure that I could throw it like how Cap does when he would throw it like a frisbee; however, as I throw it, I _magically_ altered the velocity of the speeding, spinning shield to, at least, 4,000 Newtons of force. They say, you would need 4,000 N of force to break a human femur.

My barrier shield flew and it sickeningly cracked the shade’s face, before it bounced off, hitting another shade from the back, making it stagger and confuse. The barrier-shield then disappeared upon impact. The soldiers then took that opportunity to slay the demons as I summoned another shield.

This time, the remaining demons came after me. I had to pause time again as soon as they emerged, trying to think for my next move. There was Cassandra to my left about to kill one, so that would leave the three left. Then what?

Scanning around, I noticed the weapons crate not too far away.

When time started again, I unleashed the shield at the three once I made it five feet bigger, knocking them down before running off to the weapons crate. I turned back to see Cassandra slaying the fourth before taking advantage on the fallen shade by stabbing her sword into it.

The other soldiers also rushed in to slay the remaining two. One of them got the second shade, and the other attempted to go after the last shade. However, the last shade had already recovered and it once again submerged unto the ground into the form of a moving shadow.

All this was happening as I reached the weapons cache and pulled out a sword.

Pausing time again, I started to evaluate. Never had I ever been a swordsman, so I doubted my ability to be able to properly stab that beast once it arises. I’ll just have to aim for the most vulnerable part—like its neck. Then what? Would it be enough to stab it through?

Recalling about all the anime shows of isekai (because I’m a huge fan of those), I remembered one that was about the wiseman’s grandchild, and in the first episode, he had a glowing ‘lightsaber’ sword. Later he explained that it was light going at supersonic speed. I don’t technically have a measure of how much that is, but if I use the barrier’s energy to coat the blade and have the barrier vibrate at that speed…

Okay. Let’s do that.

Time moved again, and I applied the terms of magic I wanted.

Magic was starting to make sense to me. It was like writing a program before executing the matters. I’m sure it’s only because the prompt had given me ultimate magic that I was able to do any of this with just my thoughts and imagination, but still, I hadn’t realized at the time that such use of magic was going to put me through hell in the future.

Either way, it worked. The blade was coated with a white energy (disappointingly not red, I wanted to be a Sith for a while.)

The demon appeared and I slowed time again, calculating the exact time I should thrust my blade before I let the seconds flow again and I plunged the blade right at its neck.

Its head lopped off from its shoulders before disappearing into smoke.

The sonic-vibration coating of the sword then went away.

The two soldiers fell to their knees, panting heavily as they were looking at me with disbelief in their eyes. Cassandra marched up to me, started demanding things and waving her sword around. I’m sure she wanted to know what sort of magic I was using, or things like that, but I don’t really know what she’s saying.

And so, I just shrugged my shoulders again, and she let out the famous disgruntled sigh.

Classic Cass.

*****

We continued our hike up to the trail until we reached the crumbled guard station where Solas and Varric were fighting with the remaining soldiers, keeping the rift demons at bay.

To my dismay, there was a fear demon. Shit.

I wasted no time, throwing the shield at the beast and knocking it off on its feet, startling those around me. I altered the motion speed of my own running at 25 mph—to be clearer, I had run over to the fallen demon and stood over it in less than a second. It was still disoriented, and I wasted no time stabbing my blade unto its neck, lopping its head as well. It died instantly.

Another demon was coming to my left, and a bolt came flying at it, hitting the eye. It was distracted and I took that chance to swing my sword at it, cutting its body in half. This sword of mine with the sonic-coating was cutting every object with ease like it was butter.

I looked over to see where the bolt had come from, and sure enough, it was from Varric himself. I nodded to him before continuing to help the others, throwing more of my Captain shield, pausing time, and slashing demons. Overall, the difficulty factor of stopping these demons were five times harder. It was only easy for me due to the perks given by SupremeMaker, otherwise, this gameplay was a nightmare.

Once all the demons were cleared, Solas grabbed my wrist.

“Xielgmo! Pavuna suna lusa drnuikr!”

Suddenly, I felt the tug from my mark, and I knew that it was his doing… that because of him, I was now able to use the mark properly.

The rift closed with a shockwave and an explosive sound that caused our hairs to flutter, like meeting a helicopter descending down, creating gusts, but it was only for a short while.

I stared at my hand before turning to Solas, cocking my head to side questionably.

“Ed caasc so drauno fungc, Caagan [Cassandra].”

Damn it… His voice sounds _so_ good. Damn that Welsh voice actor. Sigh… if only I could understand what he was saying…

I could already guess what Varric was saying as he came up to us. The way it sounded, he was repeating his line from the dialogue, even though the words were different, the flow was extremely reminiscent. Cassandra then started speaking, and from there, I’ve no clue. I just looked between all three of them, giving up on deciphering what they’re saying. When Solas turned to me and started speaking, I shrugged my shoulders at him.

The elven apostate frowned deeply, though I’m not sure if he was just disappointed that he couldn’t communicate with me, or if that was just his ‘thinking’ face, probably trying to see if there was such a thing as a language charm like from Harry Potter.

Varric took over and then he gestured to himself. “Varric. Solas. Cassandra.”

My eyes widened at that, understanding he was giving out names as he gestured which is who. I nodded my head to him, but then I gestured to my throat, opening my mouth, making no noise, before closing it again.

“ _Sida?_ ” He questioned.

I nodded at that, then I held out my hand to gesture ‘stop’, before holding out my palm and pretending to write on it.

“Fneda? Oui lyh fneda?”

I hesitated, before slowly nodding, and Cassandra then interrupted, probably saying they have no time for me to write. Varric talked and he gestured a wait signal before walking away to find something. Once he did, he returned with a stick and he handed it to me. He then pointed at the snow.

Holy shit, why didn’t I think of this!?

Grabbing the stick, I started to write on the now.

_My name is Nathan._

All three shared confused looks. Shit… shit, this can’t be happening. Don’t tell me they don’t understand the script either! Solas then started to say something, and Cassandra looked like it she was about to have a fit. Then I understood one word that they were saying:

_Tevinter_.

Don’t tell me… Earth English language? It’s Tevene?

Double shit.

All evidence and suspicions are stacking up against me!

*****

After all that, the excitement drained away from me. None of them could read Tevene, and more than likely, they wouldn’t be able to say my name. I hope they can get someone, who is from Tevinter, to help translate.

Soon, there were more demons on another icy lake. Huh. There’s a lot of lakes around here.

I turned to Cassandra, gesturing her to wait as I reached out to touch her blade. The sonic-coating was applied on her blade and she was stunned, but she understood what I was doing, since she wasn’t panicking too much. I then touched her shield and added also the vibranium barrier on it.

Solas then voiced out in a surprising tone that conveyed words of curiosity and admiration. When he looked at me and talked, I waited until he was finished before shrugging my shoulders at him.

He frowned again, this time for sure, disappointment was clear on his face.

Varric laughed.

We rushed onto the battlefield and as always, I threw my shield. I may have been cheating a bit because, along with that _Pause_ feature, I can auto-target my enemies, which meant all my throwing attacks were hitting them square on.

Despite this nightmarish difficulty, so long as I had this ultimate magic and protagonist feature, I was able to control the battle as I see fit, and my companions were coming away unscathed from it. The only time that ever worried me was when all the demons would seem to always come after me first, despite Cassandra charging at them first. Most of the time, I would end up running away a bit, trying to get some distance.

Then, we were at the forward camp, battling the rift and demons there. Without Solas’ help, I managed to close it on my own. Once it closed, I felt a wave of fatigue wash over coupled with vertigo that sent me collapsing to my knees.

Solas was then at my side, checking over me.

They chatted with concerns and demands as I was trying recuperate. I can tell this was vertigo because I remembered getting it when I took that late-night shift and worked too long for about 14 hours straight due to the massive order we had to do and the three people that called off that time. I remember getting dizzy before passing out after I had clocked out.

They took me into the forward camp and set me down on the ground, leaning against the bridge’s wall. I can actually hear Chancellor Roderick not too far away arguing with Leliana, but I didn’t care too much for that right now. What did it matter? I can’t speak their language anyway.

Solas then took out this blue glowing vial and tried to get me to drink it.

Immediately, I turned my head away. I knew what it was. There was no way I was drinking the blood of a dead titan. Besides, I then remembered one of the cons that SupremeMaker had listed for me: lyrium, or even blood magic, is my kryptonite if ingested. He insisted that I would take it, but I shook my head no fervently. Thankfully, Solas was a quick learner as he stopped trying to give it to me despite Cassandra’s questioning.

I rested on the ground for more than ten minutes as I watched Cassandra and Leliana argue with Chancellor Roderick. After a while, Cassandra took the map from the table and walked over to me.

She showed me the map first and then she gestured the number two.

She paused for a while until I nodded my head for her to continue.

With a finger, she pointed a straight path into the temple and gestured ‘One’ finger. Then she traced a route from the bridge, up the mountain, and to the temple. I realized then this was the decision either taking the mountain pass or charging.

Immediately, I raised two fingers and she frowned at that. Varric was smiling though.

We took the mountain pass, and all I could do was listen to them talk. I have to think back from the game, remembering every bit of their dialogue. I recalled Solas questioning what the tunnels were and Cassandra answered it was a mining complex. And then, Varric would mention about the missing scouts with Solas quipping ‘ _along with whatever is detaining them_.’

No surprise at all, there were demons. I had enchanted my sword with the sonic-coating spell and summoned Cap’s shield, before doing the same to Cassandra’s.

Furthemore, I turned to Varric and Solas for a moment, before waving my hand over them.

My application of a vibranium barrier was different from Solas’ summoning barrier. Every time he did that, there would always be some sigil underneath our feet, like some program being initiated before it’s executed. With mine, there was no sigil or casting insignia. It was a sprinkle of magic, and boom, they were coated in vibranium barrier.

One wraith hit us with its wisp attacks, but the magic just bounced off of Varric and Solas. I had noticed that with Solas’ barrier, it would tremble from impact, but mine withstood it better as if it was hitting stone wall.

Once the demons were cleared out, Solas again was questioning me with admiration in his tone, but then it gradually changed to disappointment, realizing that there’d be no way to properly communicate with me.

I shrugged at him again.

When we continued pass the tunnels, the missing scouts were up ahead with a rift that was detaining them. Immediately, we rushed over to help them as the demons were overwhelming them. I held my hand out and placed a barrier on each and every one of them, effectively saving them from any fatal attacks.

The vibranium barrier retained for everyone one of us until after I closed the rift. The blast left me exhausted, and with that, my sonic-coating spell and vibranium barriers dissipated. I let out another heavy sigh before taking a seat down on the rubble stone. Varric approached, asking, “oui ymnekrd, get?”

I stared at him for a bit before gesturing my hand that conveyed, ‘unsure’.

“Tet oui ihtancdyht fryd E cyet, un yna oui zicd kiaccehk, get?”

Get? …Kid maybe? Either way, I shrugged at him too.

I don’t know.

The lieutenant, whose name escapes me, saluted to Cassandra, probably thanking her. Cassandra shook her head and pointed at me.

I bowed my head to her in acknowledgement and the lieutenant saluted her thanks.

As they were leaving, Solas handed me a potion, but this time it was green. Stamina potion? I wondered… This time, I took it and drank it. Sure enough, I felt re-energized as if I had the strongest, highly-caffeinated coffee with lots and lots of sugar. One more time, I was up on my feet and I turned to Solas.

Remembering the sign language gesture, I had my right flat hand with the fingers near my lips before moving it forward and a bit down, saying thank you. Although, he wouldn’t actually know what that gesture would mean, I’m hoping he could see the gratitude upon my face.

‘THANK YOU.’

Solas’ brows raised high at my gesture.

I blinked. Did he understand that?

To my amazement, he signed back to me ‘WELCOME’.

At this climatic moment, I wasn’t sure if I should be extremely elated that someone finally understood me, or my whole world was about to fall apart because the Fen’Harel can understand American Sign Language. Furthermore, I couldn’t believe how useful this was in the end. My cousin was deaf, but I remembered growing up with him, learning how to use sign language. Although it’s been years since I last practiced, I could still remember some of it.

With it, I started to sign to him.

‘MY NAME IS NATHAN.’

Solas then turned to Varric and Cassandra, whom were waiting for an explanation. He was probably telling them that I could communicate in sign language. For a moment, I wondered how Solas even knew American Sign Language until I remembered the dwarves in Orzammar had the Silent sisters, a female-dwarven fighting company that excelled in unarmed combat. There was some codex that mentioned they had built their own signing language system. It seemed like they also have the alphabet down.

How the elven and old god even know about it is beyond my knowledge.

Solas the finished, “…Ra fyc cyoehk rec hysa ec _Nathan._ ”

I gaped a bit. He even said my name right.

For the next several minutes as we continued on our trek to the Temple of Sacred Ashes, Cassandra began interrogating me with some questions.

First things first, I am not going to play the oracle or know-it-all route. I am going to have to chalk everything up to luck and make them all believe that I’ve no clue. It would be hard to try and lie around Leliana and Bull, but fuck it. I don’t want to be responsible when Haven collapses.

With that in mind, I have to be extremely careful.

Solas began acting as the interpreter.

“Do you know what happened at the Conclave?” Cassandra asked.

I signed away. Precious egghead began translating.

‘I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T REMEMBER.’

“That will get you every time,” Varric said. “You should have spun a story.”

I didn’t need to sign for this. I made a cringing face while shrugging, and he laughed.

Solas then asked me, “How fluent are you in Tevene, and are you from Tevinter?”

I hesitated, mostly because I don’t know how to answer that without sounding crazy and I had some difficulty replying it in sign.

‘NOT FROM TEVINTER.’

“But you were writing in Tevene,” Varric pointed out. “And it’s supposedly a dead language. There wouldn’t be anyone that would be fluent with it unless you’re in the royal family, I hear.”

Did he hear that from Fenris? Maybe?

I shrugged again.

For now, the questions were held off as we arrived at the temple. For a moment, I was shaken. The life out of me was instantly drained away when the pungent smell of smoke and death reached my nose and the sight of a burnt corpse, frozen in a running pose, continued to burn with flames.

The bile in my stomach nearly heaved.

Turning away, I went down the path with everyone else to see the first rift. Soon after, Leliana arrived and Cassandra probably reported to her about what had happened. The Spymaster glanced at me strangely, but Solas stepped in, probably saying that we needed to deal with the breach first.

Then, we started hearing voices and, oh my god, David Sterne’s voice shook me to the core—I mean Corypheus. Sounded so damn evil and scary.

_“What the fuck is going on here?!”_

Oh… my God…

“Fru fyc dryd?” Cassandra questioned.

The memory then came, and it played out the huge shadowy figure and the Divine Justinia. However, I was in too much shock to pay attention when I saw the image of myself in the memory running into the room, interrupting the scene.

In English, my image shouted, “ _What the fuck is going on here?!_ ”

My voice… that was my fucking voice…

I could feel the others’ eyes burning into me from behind, but I couldn’t comprehend. So… I wasn’t mute. Perhaps… the nightmare demon had stolen my voice.

When the memory ended, Cassandra began demanding questions, but I was still a little too out of it to react. Solas, thankfully, got in between us and reminded her what’s more important right now. They needed to close the breach.

So, for now, the interrogation was on hold, but they know that I’m innocent.

As everyone got ready, I then remembered a fucking huge pride demon would come out from the other side.

‘WAIT!’ I signed to Solas.

They waited for me as I went around looking for spears, pikes, and even swords.

They watched me as I started stabbing these weapons and metal staffs upright into the ground and from up high, using stones and rubbles to keep them in place. Cassandra started to question what I was doing, but I gestured again to wait. With poor communication, they left me alone until I was done setting up the place.

I returned to them, smiling triumphantly as I signed to Solas.

‘FINISH.’

“What were you planning?” Solas asked.

‘WAIT. AND. SEE.’

He stared at me, still wanting an explanation, and I shrugged. He decided to drop it and gestured for me to continue. Note: my shoulders are getting heavy from all the shrugging.

I reached out, grasping the rift. It pulled too hard, not wanting to bend to my will, but in this prompt, my will was stronger. I managed to tug it hard enough that it broke open.

Oh, a pride demon didn’t come.

TWO Pride demons came out along with seven other shades and annoying wraiths.

Fucking damn it!

Immediately, I summoned the vibranium barrier on every last person, making sure to alter the application a bit, giving it a high resistance against electricity. Both demons took out electrical whips—and thank GOD! My plan had worked.

When they tried to lash their lightning magic upon the soldiers, the lightning missed them and instead went straight for the electrical rods that I had set up, acting as conductors and catching lightning.

I ran away immediately, knowing that Solas and the others would want to know how I would know about electrical rods.

Instead, I just went up to the rift and tugged it hard.

The rift exploded, crippling the pride demons’ defenses and stunning every shade and wraith while the others continued to slash and hack the enemies.

This went on for quite a long while, until finally at the third time around, the explosion of the rift caused every creature on the field to die, and the rift was now spilling out waters of ether.

Cassandra shouted something, and it’s probably to close the damn rift. I rushed over to it and reached my hand out to close it. After several times closing the rift, this was the longest and harshest interaction I have ever had with the rift, because it felt like my own soul was ripping in half with my hand burning in hot molten fire.

Alas, the rift exploded and it shot out towards the sky, hitting the breach, and a massive explosion was unleashed, knocking everyone off their feet.

For me, it was much worse. As soon as the breach was affected, my entire being was shocked through the core as if I felt its pain. Was it possible? I wasn’t sure, but the pain was extremely unbearable that the world around me began to fall to darkness…

And I fell into deep, dying slumber.

*****

* * *

CHALLENGE PROMPT NOTES

Pros:

  1. Protagonist feature: pause, auto-target, [HIDDEN], [HIDDEN], [HIDDEN]
  2. Ultimate magic



Cons:

  * Lyrium/blood magic is kryptonite
  * Nightmarish mode
  * Mute (temporary)
  * Unable to understand Common Language
  * Earth English language is Tevene



Author’s Notes:

  * Common in Thedas is Al Bhed. You can use an Al Bhed translator online if you google it, and find ‘stephenw32768.appspot.com’. Disclaimer: I do not own this site.




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